If you are a internet marketer who uses his or her own server with a mailing software like interspire or auto response plus, you may have noted that over the past few years the number of open rates for your mailing must have drastically reduced.
I have been using a self hosted email system to send mail to all my clients. The main reason for this was that I always felt that double optin broke the marketing flow. Hosted email solutions like aweber or constantcontact to name a few force you to use double optins.
I mean, say a person buys one of my software and I want to add him to my optin list, using a double optin would mean me sending him a confirmation mail and then expect him to click that link and then get the unlock key.
This in my opinion would piss off most people, which then got me thinking “Hey these guys are using a mail software just like mine, and i’m not sending any mail about viagra or penis enlargement, so why would their deliverability be better than mine?”
After a little research and implementation of these steps on own mail server, ive almost doubled my open rates and my mail almost never ends up in the bulk folder at yahoo, gmail etc
Things you need to do
1) Ask your host to enable reverse DNS on your box
2) Set up SPF( sender policy framework) records on your server:
This is one of the ways that hosts check if the mail is indeed sent from the server it claims to be sent from. If you are running cpanel then you can do this yourself without your hosts help. Here is an article on how to do that.
3) Set up DomainKeys: Domain keys is a public/private key system that was started by Yahoo and is now used both by Yahoo as well as Gmail to check if the mail was indeed sent from the domain it claims to be sent from.
This is one of the next most important thing to do after setting up your reverse DNS.
For a quick tutorial on how to set up domain keys visit this site
4) Senderid: This is a system that’s followed by microsoft, but if you have the 3 steps I outlined earlier, your mail should sail through
5) Every few mailings check if your servers IP is in any DNS based blacklists using a tool like mxtoolbox and if it is then mail the admins at those sites and explain your situation to them. Most are always ready to help out.
6) Getting included in email deliverability services: Sites like suretymail, habeas, goodmail and senderscore aer third party accreditation sites that work closely with ISP’s and ensure that your mail gets delivered. When you sign up at these sites, your servers IP is included in their database, and the ISP’s check these databases, and if they find your IP in there then your mail gets delivered. This of these as opposites of blacklists 
But note that these services arent all that cheap. For example goodmail charges per 1000 mail sent, and others like suretymail though only charge $10 per month, charge you $500 as setup charges.
So in conclusion, if you follow the first 5 of the 6 simple steps I’ve talked about, your mail will land up in your prospects inbox for sure 
